523I.602  Management by trustee.
  1.  Trustee appointed — trust funds.  The owners of, or any party interested in, a cemetery may, by petition presented to the district court of the county where the cemetery is situated, have a trustee appointed with authority to receive any and all moneys or property that may be donated for and on account of the cemetery and to invest, manage, and control the moneys or property under the direction of the court. However, the trustee shall not be authorized to receive any gift, except with the understanding that the principal sum is to be a permanent fund, and only the net proceeds therefrom shall be used in carrying out the purpose of the trust created, and all such funds shall be exempt from taxation.
  2.  Requisites of petition.  The petition shall state the amount proposed to be placed in such trust fund, the manner of investment thereof, and the provisions made for the disposition of any surplus income not required for the care and upkeep of the property described in such petition.
  3.  Approval of court — surplus fund.  Such provisions shall be subject to the approval of the court and when so approved the trust fund and the trustee thereof shall, at all times, be subject to the orders and control of the court and such surplus arising from the trust fund shall not be used except for charitable, eleemosynary, or public purposes under the direction of the court.
  4.  Receipt — record.  Every such trustee shall execute and deliver to the donor a receipt showing the amount of money or other property received, and the use to be made of the net proceeds from the same, duly attested by the clerk of the court granting letters of trusteeship, and the trustee shall keep a signed and attested copy of the receipt.
  5.  Investments.  Any such trustee may receive and invest all moneys and property, so donated or bequeathed, and that portion of cemetery lot sales and permanent charges made against interment spaces which has been set aside in a perpetual care fund, in such authorized investments and in the manner prescribed in section 636.23.
  6.  Bond — approval — oath.  Every such trustee before entering upon the discharge of the trustee’s duties or at any time thereafter when required by the court shall give a bond in an amount as may be required by the court, approved by the clerk, and conditioned for the faithful discharge of the trustee’s duties, and take and subscribe an oath the same in substance as the condition of the bond, which bond and oath must be filed with the clerk.
  7.  Clerk — duty of.  At the time of filing each bond and oath the clerk shall at once advise the court as to the amount of the principal fund in the hands of such trustee, the amount of the bond filed, and whether it is good and sufficient for the amount given.
  8.  Compensation — costs.  Such trustee shall serve without compensation, but may, out of the income received, pay all proper items of expense incurred in the performance of the trustee’s duties, including cost of the bond, if any.
  9.  Annual report.  Such trustee shall make a full report of the trustee’s doings in the month of January following appointment and in January of each successive year. In each report the trustee shall apportion the net proceeds received from the sum total of the permanent funds assigned to the trustee in trust.
  10.  Removal — vacancy filled.  Any such trustee may be removed by the court at any time for cause, and in the event of removal or death, the court shall appoint a new trustee and require the new trustee’s predecessor or the predecessor’s personal representative to make a full accounting.
2005 Acts, ch 128, §50; 2009 Acts, ch 21, §8